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The Communist Party of Swaziland calls for full solidarity with students at Southern African Nazarene University (SANU), who are on strike over unpaid academic allowances.

The SANU is a state health training institution operating under the Nazareth health institutions in Swaziland, and has campuses at Steki Good Shepherd and Manzini Nazarene Hospitals.

The students are protesting at the sudden stop to their allowances, which has disrupted the payment of fees and access to academic books, accommodation, food, textbooks andother essentials.

The students have been on strike since 27 January. The university management has responded by calling in the police to try to break up the strike.

The presence of the police on campus is putting the lives of the students at risk.

Mswati’s police are increasingly deployed to clamp down on peaceful protests linked to the failures of the dictatorship to provide necessary services to the people. 

The CPS calls on the administration of the institution to get the police off campus and to engage with the students to address their grievances without delay.

We call on student organisations and other progressive formations in Swaziland and outside the country to work in solidarity with the Swazi students and the Swaziland National Union of Students.

What limited rights there are in Swaziland concerning access to learning must be defended tooth and nail in the face of constant efforts by the regime to avoid its meager public spending commitments.

Issued by Communist Party of Swaziland